I don't even refridgerate my atemoya scion. It just sits in outdoor shade in its plastic ziplock bag and moist environment created by overgrown weeds in the bag. I consider it a discard but I'm interested in seeing whether it will root. It's true when people tell me cherimoyas don't root easily, not after 4 months anyway. It still looked plump and healthy.

I suspect that most of us, like me, simply collect the anthers in the male stage.  The anthers of course contain the pollen. I just apply the loose anthers and pollen to the female stage.  Could it be possible that these anthers at the top of the flower cone could be scraped off when the flower is in the female stage and ripen pollen in a few hours and therefore add another opportunity for pollen collection?  There is that stage in the flower when it appears that the anthers are ready to shed, but don't.  Waiting a few hours they become loose and ready to collect.  This would require destruction of the flower, but perhaps extend the time period where pollen (anthers) could be collected. In our climate I can collect pollen (anthers) and pollinate females at the same time.

That's what was tested to work for commercial growers in California and Australia. It's called female stage pollen. The reason to use it is to extend the fruiting season. At both ends of the season the flowers are fewer, making "normal" manual pollination more difficult to achieve.

But one detail I'm not clear about is when the pollen become effective. Can a flower self-pollinate if there's only one around? A side effect that was discovered is that female stage pollen remain viable longer than pollen properly matured.

I'm not sure if I said it clearly this time, since there were confusion earlier on about this idea. Maybe I should have put it in a new thread.

Steven, do you wrap the ends of the scions with paper or no? Some people take care to not let paper touch any open wounds on the scions.

Yes, annonas scions seem to work differently than deciduous plants. They don't require cold storage.

David Archer of Bonita Creek nursery might have brewster lychee for sale also. But maybe Ong has better looking trees. He's so good with the automatic irrigation in his backyard nursey.

Good to know that. I don't have a mango tree anymore but if I ever get started I'll make sure at least one is poly.

Would the leaves be visibly dissimilar between seedlings? If so that would be an easier way to tell.
Would it not be desirable to grow the strongest one and see if it's superior to the mother? What's there to lose? Just graft a scion from the mother plant onto a branch later and you'll have 2 varieties. Name the seedling after yourself.

I'm confused as to whether we're discussing a home growing or nursery growing. It seems to vary between posts. Anyway, if you're a nursery with lots of seeds, snip off the strongest one and the weakest 2 and 99% of the time you end up with a clone. If you're home growing, separate one seed and you'll get several plants. It's not as difficult as it sounds if you do it at the right time.

I look for the one with umbilical cords that connect to other pieces and that'll be the one from fertilization. Sprouts growing directly from a big piece are clones.

Is it possible for the embyo from fertilization to die and still have a normal fruit? Thinking back at all those mangos with aborted seeds I guess it can happen.

Do mangos require fertilization to set fruit?

Fang

Regarding clone vs. Off type in poly embryonic, from basic high school bio in 1997, in polyembryonic scenario the ovule splits a couple of times forming several embryos. Only one gets fertilized and the others are clones.

The one that's fertilized is usually the strongest due to it's being attached to the cotyledons for a much larger nutrient reservoir. Clones can vary in size and are not attached to anything. Clone tissue can sometimes get pretty big but that's not the norm.

Find out the "hybrid" by separating the seedlings and look for the one attached to cotyledons.

Isn't having the clones being stronger than fertilized embryo too good to be true? If that were the case wouldn't polyembryonic plants become all clones in the end due to weak "hybrids"? I encourage people to grow out the most vigorous seedlings and see whether they turn out superior to the mother tree. Good luck!

Xeno, look in the crfg-la.org website. There's a member in Somis giving a garden tour in August or Sept. He has a lot of Australian fruits and rare fruits in general. We were just talking about Chinese yellow chestnuts yesterday. I had no idea that existed.

Would love some scion from Japan  . Loquats are great spring time fruit, more attention should be given to the development of new varieties besides the standard Big Jim. I had a 'Vista White' loquat but unfortunately it got a bad case of blight and died.

Jim is still growing new varieties of loquat at his home. They are being selected for taste and number and size of seeds. I personally like white loquats over yellow ones. They tend to have more juice and acidity. I think Jim likes the white ones better too although his name is on a yellow one.

I think they call them wax jambu as the common name in the area where I live.

It probably doesn't apply to where you live but in SoCal we have to keep in mind how sun sensitive the plants are and be careful to not expose bare bark for things like cherry and citrus. Also some things should be pruned in summer and some in winter.

It's always interesting to see updates from people up north

Hope it recovers. Maybe some shade would help if it's been in full sun.

Do you guys in FL practice cutting half of each leaf to reduce water loss? Obviously it's more work than cutting whole leaves.